A CYCLIST helped save a pensioner who fell ill on a Spanish road trip.

Paul Taylor, 50, from Knuzden, Blackburn, was on his bike a few miles south of San Sebastian, in Spain’s mountainous Basque Country, when he saw another cyclist struggling to climb up a hill.

The lorry driver was travelling from Bilbao across the Pyrenees mountains as part of a 2000 mile journey from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean when he met David Blackburn, 76, who was taking the scenic route into the city as part of a round trip from Plymouth.

The cyclist, who lives in Taunton, regularly travels on the ferry from Plymouth to Santander, on the north coast of Spain, and then cycles through mainland Spain and France back home to England, a 750-mile journey.

The father-of-three had met Mr Blackburn just moments after he had collapsed on a side bench.

Mr Blackburn had been sat on a bench when someone had rung an ambulance for him but he did realise it was for him.

Mr Blackburn said: “I felt a bit faint because I was climbing up a steep hill.

“I sat down on the side road, for what he thought was 10 minutes, and looked up to see four blue lights flashing on the road in front of me and there were three police cars and an ambulance.

"The nurse stayed with me for 15 minutes and I convinced her to let me go and continue my ride.”

Mr Taylor was cycling down the same route as part of his own bike ride when he caught sight of David, who started to feel unwell.

Mr Taylor said: "When I caught sight of him he was climbing up a big hill and was pushing his bike up it.

"I asked him what was wrong and he said I do not know.

"I just calmed him down and convinced him to go to the hospital and get checked out."

Mr Blackburn said: “Paul took me to a local hospital for a check and stayed with me for two hours while I was looked at.

“He had been so helpful that I really appreciate what he had done.

" He really didn’t have to. He was very considerate.”

A month on, Mr Blackburn, who is receiving medical treatment for his heart problem, has been told not to cycle until he starts to feel well again.

Mr Taylor, who studied at Blackburn’s Shadsworth High School, said: “I saw a man in distress and did what any other person would do to help.”